Colin Middleton MBE RHA RUA (1910-1983) Wall, Tullybrannigan (1964) Oil on board,...
Colin Middleton MBE RHA RUA (1910-1983)
Wall, Tullybrannigan (1964)
Oil on board, 60 x 60cm (23½ x 23½'')
Signed; signed, inscribed and dated 1964 verso
Provenance: Previously owned by The Duchess of...
Colin Middleton MBE RHA RUA (1910-1983)
Wall, Tullybrannigan (1964)
Oil on board, 60 x 60cm (23½ x 23½'')
Signed; signed, inscribed and dated 1964 verso
Provenance: Previously owned by The Duchess of Westminster
Literature: John Hewitt, Colin Middleton, Illus. (full page) p.67
In the late 1950s, Colin Middleton and his family had begun to spend holidays near Newcastle, in Co Down, first at Mrs Bowden’s farm at Tullybrannigan, before they regularly began to visit a caravan sited in the area. The remarkably varied landscape around Newcastle, including the Mourne Mountains, the beach at Dundrum, Spelga Dam and Tollymore Forest, became a key source of inspiration throughout the 1960s, and these place names recur throughout Middleton’s exhibitions at this time.
Middleton developed a specific iconography in response to these various places, a shorthand that allowed him to convey particular aspects of the landscape within the abstract aesthetic that he explored in the 1960s. The present painting is built up with repeated patterns across the board, a series of irregular shapes, relating to the large forms of the wall, breaking up in diminishing scale as they recede into the distance, which is marked by rows of loosely-notated trees that seem to fly across the pale horizon.
The muted palette is typical of this period, moving from earthy browns in the foreground to dark greys, off-white and darker greys, with a busy horizontal of yellows and greens at the base of the wall, perhaps suggesting gorse or other vegetation.
Middleton included Wall: Tullybrannigan in a number of major exhibitions, including ‘The Art of Colin Middleton’, at the Arts Council Gallery in Belfast in 1965 (after which it appears to have been shown at the Hendriks Gallery in Dublin), and it seems likely to have also been exhibited as Mourne Wall, in an Arts Council loan exhibition covering the years 1960-1970, that toured in Northern Ireland and Scotland, before being included in his extensive 1976 retrospective at the Ulster Museum and the Hugh Lane Gallery.
Dickon Hall, August 2026
Colin Middleton MBE RHA RUA (1910-1983)
Wall, Tullybrannigan (1964)
Oil on board, 60 x 60cm (23½ x 23½'')
Signed; signed, inscribed and dated 1964 verso
Provenance: Previously owned by The Duchess of...
Colin Middleton MBE RHA RUA (1910-1983)
Wall, Tullybrannigan (1964)
Oil on board, 60 x 60cm (23½ x 23½'')
Signed; signed, inscribed and dated 1964 verso
Provenance: Previously owned by The Duchess of Westminster
Literature: John Hewitt, Colin Middleton, Illus. (full page) p.67
In the late 1950s, Colin Middleton and his family had begun to spend holidays near Newcastle, in Co Down, first at Mrs Bowden’s farm at Tullybrannigan, before they regularly began to visit a caravan sited in the area. The remarkably varied landscape around Newcastle, including the Mourne Mountains, the beach at Dundrum, Spelga Dam and Tollymore Forest, became a key source of inspiration throughout the 1960s, and these place names recur throughout Middleton’s exhibitions at this time.
Middleton developed a specific iconography in response to these various places, a shorthand that allowed him to convey particular aspects of the landscape within the abstract aesthetic that he explored in the 1960s. The present painting is built up with repeated patterns across the board, a series of irregular shapes, relating to the large forms of the wall, breaking up in diminishing scale as they recede into the distance, which is marked by rows of loosely-notated trees that seem to fly across the pale horizon.
The muted palette is typical of this period, moving from earthy browns in the foreground to dark greys, off-white and darker greys, with a busy horizontal of yellows and greens at the base of the wall, perhaps suggesting gorse or other vegetation.
Middleton included Wall: Tullybrannigan in a number of major exhibitions, including ‘The Art of Colin Middleton’, at the Arts Council Gallery in Belfast in 1965 (after which it appears to have been shown at the Hendriks Gallery in Dublin), and it seems likely to have also been exhibited as Mourne Wall, in an Arts Council loan exhibition covering the years 1960-1970, that toured in Northern Ireland and Scotland, before being included in his extensive 1976 retrospective at the Ulster Museum and the Hugh Lane Gallery.
Dickon Hall, August 2026
